Mamata patronising infiltration: Shah

KOLKATA: Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Saturday launched a scathing attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress president Rahul Gandhi for opposing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and said that they should clarify whether the country comes first or the vote bank.

Attacking Banerjee in her backyard, the BJP president, who addressed a rally here, accused the Trinamool Congress of “patronizing” infiltration from Bangladesh and corruption in West Bengal and gave a call for uprooting the TMC government.

Shah said the Assam accord was signed by the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress had no problems with the National Register of Citizens at that time. He alleged that for the sake of vote bank politics, Rahul Gandhi is not making his stand clear on illegal migration from Bangladesh. Hitting back at Shah, the TMC said the BJP’s “communal politics will not work in Bengal.”

Virtually sounding the poll bugle for the next Lok Sabha polls in Bengal, Shah began his speech at the well-attended public rally with the slogan of uprooting the ruling TMC government from Bengal and said that he would visit all the districts in the state.

He said the party’s “Vijay Rath (victory march) will not stop,” until it comes to power in West Bengal. “Why do you (Banerjee) want to keep the Bangladeshi infiltrators? You should make your stand clear,” he said adding she was against the NRC for “vote bank politics.”

He claimed that infiltrators were a vote bank for the previous Communist government and now they have become the vote bank of the TMC. “Rahul Gandhi and Mamata didi should clarify whether national security is important for them or the vote bank. For the BJP, the country comes first,” Shah said.